1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed generally to expandable and collapsible shape elements for a programmable shape surface. More specifically, the present invention is directed to expandable and collapsible shape elements capable of being programmed to form surface features of various three dimensional shapes and sizes.
2. Background Art
The visually impaired are at a disadvantage when information and control systems overwhelmingly rely on visual attention. Such is the current situation where touchscreens, which rely primarily on visual attention, are used for personal computers, smart phones, vehicular interfaces and home appliances.
Visual impairment often describes people with physical ailments but it also describes anyone in a situation where visual ability is degraded. Environmental conditions such as night time, underwater, high particulate atmospheres, and dark rooms degrade visual ability. Also multitasking, such as driving a vehicle and controlling an audio system, decreases visual attention on the primary task. Based on this broad interpretation of visual impairment, most people experience situations where visual ability is compromised. This creates a need for interfaces that interact with senses other than vision.
Auditory systems such as text to speech and voice control are well represented in industry and currently serve as an established enhancement to visual interfaces. U.S. Pat. No. 4,704,696 to Reimer et al. discloses a method and apparatus for voice control of a computer. As another example, major computer operating systems such as Apple's OSX of Apple, Inc. and Microsoft's Windows of Microsoft Corporation include auditory assistive technology. Though auditory systems increase accessibility to information, they do not fit all environments, such as noisy conditions, nor do they fit all content, such as mathematical notation.
Assistive technologies that use the sense of touch are typically called tactile displays. These displays communicate information either in graphical form or with a structured language such as Braille. Tactile displays have progressed from stiff, static pages to refreshable displays that are able to translate visual information from a computer to a tactile representation.
As with auditory systems, tactile displays currently do not fit all environments and content. However auditory systems are established and integrated in currently available devices, whereas dynamic tactile displays are still a developing technology.
Tactile displays have various underlying technologies and physical outputs. The most common commercial products are Braille pin arrays such as Braille Wave by Handy Tech Elektronik GmbH or Braille Connect by HumanWare. Pin arrays typically use mechanical methods to control vertical displacement of fixed height pins, e.g., those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,009,595, to Roberts et al. Other systems use fluid chambers to create pin-like structures, e.g., those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,047,849 to Ahn et al.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,717,326 to Ciesla discloses an alternative tactile display that uses microfluidics to inflate and deflate areas on top of a touchscreen display. Other more recent tactile displays use vibrotactile technology which provides touch feedback with the use of vibrating actuators or motors. U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2012/0268412 of Cruz-Hernandez et al. discloses a vibrotactile technology that integrates well with display and touch components and is currently available in the consumer marketplace. Currently, there lacks a surface that is capable of being transformed at will into one or more desired physical shape or button such that a user, regardless of whether he is visually impaired, may distinguish the one or more physical shape or button visually or tactilely or both from their surroundings. Thus, there is a need for a structure or shape element capable of being transformed from a relatively flat collapsed state to a shape that is distinguishable from a flat shape in its expanded state and doing so with a relatively flat and thin underlying support structure.